Do fundo do mar... Sea bottom

PORT ARANSAS, Texas -- In shallow water near Port Aransas, a mystery has shown itself, just barely. And not enough to know what it is.

Which is why a team of divers and a state archaeologist hit the water Monday to check out what appears to be a previously unknown sunken ship.

Steve Hoyt, the state's marine archaeologist with the Texas Historical Commission, led the team.

After five hours of investigation in about 20 feet of water near San Jose Island, Hoyt has some answers but many more questions.

"What I know so far," Hoyt said, "It's a lot older than I thought it would be."

Hoyt said the vessel could date as far back as the late 1800s or early 1900s but Monday's mission was purely reconnaissance.

The team made eight dives on the wreck Monday and determined that it had a wooden hull and was steam-driven.

"We found the boiler, we found the fire bricks," Hoyt said. "If we had some more visibility we could get a lot more information."

They also found a lot of metal. Metal rods, metal turnbuckles and metal pins.

Hoyt said the next step would be to determine the vessel's age. If the wreck is older than 1900, it automatically will become a state archaeological landmark, according to the historical antiquities code of Texas. If the vessel is post-1900, it still could become a landmark, but that is decided on a case-by-case basis.

Craig Hlavinka of Matagorda is a volunteer archaeological steward through a program with the Texas Historical Commission. Hlavinka drove about three hours to dive with Hoyt and two others.

"The thrill of discovery," Hlavinka said grinning, "It's exciting."

After his first dive on the wreck Monday afternoon, Hlavinka still was smiling.

"Well, it's a big, rusty mess." Hlavinka said. "It's always how they look at first."

Dee Wallace of Port Aransas was one of the first to dive on the wreck after a friend spotted something unusual in the channel while parasailing in June.

Wallace dived down to look at it a few times and said he thinks it's an old steam barge, but he has no information about its history or how it got to the bottom of the channel.

SOURCE - Corpus Christi Caller Times


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Archaeologists are excited about the discovery of two ships that are believed to have ferried between Korea and China in the 14th century. The wooden ships are thought to have been used during Korea's Koryo era that lasted until 1392, before the advent of the Chosun Dynasty.

Korea's National Maritime Museum confirmed that the ships were unearthed from China's coast near Shandong Province in cooperation with China's local ancient culture office. Authorities hope the discovery will shed light on ancient voyages on the high seas.

SEOUL -- Ancient vessels assumed to be 14th-century Korean trade boats have been found in an eastern Chinese port, a discovery that will help retrace the history of marine exchanges between Korea and China from that era, archaeologists involved in the find said Monday.

They are the first Korean ancient vessels found overseas and stand as evidence that Koreans engaged in international trade before they curbed such exchanges centuries later, said the archaeologists of the National Maritime Museum.

Archaeologists working on a gas pipeline near Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire have unearthed what they believe to be a 3,400-year-old canoe.

Work has stopped on a section of the pipeline near St Botolphs to allow the Bronze Age oak relic to be recovered.

It is the first such discovery in Wales and only 150 exist across Europe.

Senior archaeologist Neil Fairburn said: "You could never have expected to find anything like this in this small wetland area, it's just awesome."

The team has also found evidence of a small settlement, a small amount of property and other items, such as polished stone rings.

Fragment

Mr Fairburn, who works for the National Grid, said: "Everybody here is excited and it's unlikely they'll ever work on anything like this again."

It was found six weeks ago less than a metre below the surface in a marshy area of land, but archaeologists have only just had it confirmed what the find was. Work was stopped immediately.

A fragment was sent to experts in Miami, who radio carbon dated it to 1,420 BC.

The canoe is carved from a single trunk of oak, and measures 4.5m x 0.9m (15ft x 3ft).

It is being kept continuously wet to prevent it from rotting.

Mr Fairburn added: "The wet conditions have provided beautiful preservation conditions for the wood.

"If the gas pipeline had not been coming through here we would not have this."

It will take another two weeks before the team is ready to move the canoe, which will be handed over to the National Museum of Wales.

Contractors have been moved to work on other parts of the route, which will run the breadth of Wales.

The natural gas pipeline will link two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals at Milford with the UK's gas supply.

There have been protests against the LNG and pipeline project on safety and environmental grounds - and this was not the first time work had been stopped after an unexpected discovery.

Earlier this year work was stopped on a section of the route at St Clears after a human thigh bone and other fragments were unearthed by contractors.

The remains were later identified as specimens used by the medical profession or students.


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The Charlotte Observer
By Steve Lyttle
August 24, 2006


Divers found an object underwater Wednesday that might be the wreckage of a 500-year-old Spanish ship, South Carolina officials say.

The ship was a lead vessel in an expedition headed by the first European explorer of South Carolina -- and the first European possibly to have landed along the North Carolina coast.

Underwater archaeologists found an object, perhaps 100 feet long, buried under sand in water near South Island, off Georgetown County.

The discovery was announced by Jim Spirek, of the S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. It was reported in today's editions of the Myrtle Beach Sun-News.

According to the Sun-News, the object was discovered about noon Wednesday. Divers plan to return to the site in September, to look for additional items.

Spirek told the Sun-News that the object could be part of the wreckage from the Chorruca, a Spanish galleon that sank in 1526 in Winyah Bay. The Chorruca was a lead vessel in the expedition headed by Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon, a conquistador born in 1475 in Toledo, Spain.

De Ayllon had settled on the island of Hispaniola (the island where today's Dominican Republic and Haiti are located) and was a successful business owner there. In 1523, he was asked by King Charles I of Spain to look for a route from the Atlantic Ocean through the newly discovered American continent to the Pacific Ocean.

De Ayllon tried to find such a passage along the Carolinas coast and is thought to have landed in the Cape Fear area. He also is credited as being the first European to discover Chesapeake Bay.

In 1526, he headed an expedition of 600 colonists hoping to begin life on the South Carolina coast.

During that expedition, the Chorruca sank. The colony did not last long. There was a fight over leadership, during which African slaves reportedly escaped and joined nearby Native American tribes.

A fever epidemic broke out, killing de Ayllon and many others.

About 150 survivors gave up the effort in late 1526 and returned to Hispaniola.

Divers from the South Carolina agency are involved in a major effort along the coast to locate the wreckage of old ships.


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UNL
August 21, 2006


O Centro de História de Além-Mar (CHAM) da Universidade Nova de Lisboa encontra-se a trabalhar, desde o dia 14 de Agosto num projecto trienal de arqueologia marítima na baía de Angra do Heroísmo.

O projecto é financiado pela Direcção Regional da Cultura e pretende, de acordo com os responsáveis do projecto José Damião Rodrigues e José António Bettencourt, contribuir para o estudo, salvaguarda e valorização do rico património cultural subaquático da Região Autónoma dos Açores através da análise de vestígios arqueológicos e levantamento de fontes relacionadas com a escala das ilhas entre os séculos XVI e XIX.

Na origem da necessidade de se proceder a este estudo, estiveram várias descobertas arqueológicas subaquáticas ocorridas nas últimas décadas, relacionadas com o porto de Angra como escala da navegação atlântica ao longo do período moderno.

Durante as duas primeiras semanas, uma equipa de arqueólogos trabalha num dos conjuntos mais importantes do património cultural subaquático português, formado pelos sítios Angra A, Angra B, Angra D, Angra E e Angra F.

Neste primeiro ano, os trabalhos consistem na identificação dos vestígios, através do levantamento em fotografia, desenho e sua interpretação, etapa essencial para o estudo e salvaguarda deste património.

Notícias dos desenvolvimentos dos trabalhos serão dadas brevemente neste site, como contributo para dar a conhecer uma importante riqueza arqueológica existente no nosso país.

KURE ATOLL, Hawaii -- The ocean has revealed a secret 120 years old on the most remote island in the Hawaiian chain. In July, state workers happened upon the wreck of the full-rigged ship Dunotter Castle, vintage Falls of Clyde, in 25 feet of crystal clear water off Kure Atoll, the last island beyond Midway.

The wreck made headlines in 1886 after seven survivors sailed 52 days and 1,200 miles in an open boat and were picked up off Kaua'i. A voyage to rescue crew members remaining on Kure set out the next day via the steamer Wai'ale'ale.

King Kalakaua himself came down to see the Wai'ale'ale off. The ship carried an artist, lumber to install a shelter with water catchment for future castaways on Kure, and a flag to claim the island for the kingdom.

Today, underwater archaeologist Hans Van Tilburg, who was at Kure with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says Dunotter Castle is the best-preserved wreck of a 19th-century ship he's ever seen.

"Where else would you find a 120-year-old ship on the bottom with so much intact that hasn't been carried off?" said Van Tilburg. "We've dived on 19th century vessels before but we see only portions. Here we see the bowsprit, anchor, hawse pipe, windless, capstan, ladders, hatch combing, rudder and 258 feet of hull. It reminded me of the Falls of Clyde sitting on the bottom."

One reason so much is left of the wreck is the remoteness of Kure, Van Tilburg said. It's difficult and expensive to reach. Part of why the wreck has not been discovered until now is that 30-foot waves sweep across the area during much of the year. The wreck was found by chance on a calm day when the staff of the state wildlife refuge, headed by Cynthia Vandelip, was returning across the lagoon in a small boat.

Van Tilburg said the team looked down and spotted the wrecked vessel.

"They radioed my NOAA team on the other side of the lagoon and said we might be interested in taking a look. They sounded excited," he said. "We were investigating two other wreck sites, the whale ship Parker and the USS Saginaw. I immediately guessed that they had found the Dunotter Castle."

He said storms have carried away all the wooden portions of the vessel, including the officers' quarters aft. What remains are the wrought-iron hull, heavy machinery and masts. The hull has fallen open. Tilburg said the wreck is home to huge schools of fish. Octopi hide beneath the ship from ravenous ulua.

The Dunotter Castle sailed from Sydney for lower California with a crew of 28 and a cargo of coal on June 9, 1886. Because of a faulty chronometer, she struck the reef at Kure on July 15. By noon the next day there was 23 feet of water in the hold. The crew landed what water and provisions they could on shore and set up camp.

Kure Atoll was a barren sandpit. The only water was a few brackish pools. The survivors found evidence of past wrecks on the island, the most famous of which was the USS Saginaw in 1870. The Saginaw had gone to Kure to aid another shipwrecked crew.

On July 24 the first mate of the Dunotter Castle, the boatswain and five of the crew set out for help in a lifeboat with 28 days' provisions and 283 gallons of water. The first land they sighted after more than a month was Necker Island, but they couldn't get closer than four miles. Next, the survivors attempted to make a landfall on nearby Bird Island, but they saw that it was bare rock with no water.

The Dunotter Castle, which sank on the reef off Kure Atoll 120 years ago, remains surprisingly intact 25 feet below the surface. (NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program)

By this time, they had been three weeks on half rations. From Aug. 23 to Sept. 1 they lived on one biscuit and a pint of water a day.

Fifty-two days out, the men sighted Kaua'i, at Kalihi Wai near Hanalei. Starved, parched and weak, they were unable to come ashore through the surf. Hawaiians spotted the helpless sailors, came out in a canoe, brought them ashore, fed them and took them to Hanalei, where they found the small interisland steamer Makee.

Word of the shipwreck reached Honolulu on Sept. 10, 1886, when the Makee stopped at Wai'anae for cargo. By the time the survivors reached Honolulu, they had created a sensation and a minor international incident. Since the Dunotter Castle flew the British flag, the British commissioner in Honolulu chartered the steamer Wai'ale'ale for a rescue mission. Rumor had it that the commissioner intended to claim the island for Britain.

Hawaiian monarchy officials in Honolulu tried to charter another steamer to claim the island first, but there were no other ships available. A crisis was averted when the British commissioner, Major James Hay Wodehouse, agreed to share the cost of the charter with the Hawaiian government and permit the Hawaiian flag to be raised on Kure.

When the Wai'ale'ale arrived at Kure, the rescue team found the island deserted. A note in a bottle fastened to a post explained that all remaining survivors had been picked up by the ship Birnam Wood en route from Hong Kong to Valparaiso. They left behind a tent, scattered equipment and a barrel well sunk in the sand with drinkable water at the bottom.

Then Col. James Harbottle Boyd, special commissioner to Kalakaua, took possession of the island for the kingdom, and the Hawaiian flag was raised to three cheers. The rescue team put up a wooden one-room house with a tin roof and water catchment, and planted coconut palms. The house remained standing for years.

HOLLAND, Mich. - A group dedicated to finding and documenting shipwrecks in Michigan's waters said Friday it found the well-preserved remains of the historic vessel Hennepin and two other ships at the bottom of LakeMichigan.

The 208-foot-long Hennepin was a steamer built in Milwaukee in 1888. It was later transformed into the Great Lakes' first self-unloader, a transport ship with anA-shaped crane and a series of conveyors that make it faster and easier to unload cargo.

"This is the prototype for about all of the Great Lakes freighters in use today," said Bob Vande Vusse, a member of Michigan ShipwreckResearch Associates.

After being in service for nearly 40 years, the Hennepin was in poor condition and being used as a tow barge when, during a voyage from Chicago to Grand Haven, it sank during a storm on Aug. 18, 1927. The captain and his 13-member worked for about four hours to save the vessel but ended up having to abandon ship and board the tugboat that had been towing it.

Everyone safely escaped the Hennepin.

Members of the Holland-based shipwreck group said they located the ship upright in 230 feet of water off South Haven earlier this year. Before it was found, the vessel had been on the group's "most wanted" list of its sixmost-sought-after shipwrecks.

The group also found a modern barge in 200 feet of water off Port Sheldon in Ottawa County and an unidentified, intact, wooden schooner in more than 250 feet of water off Saugatuck.

Co-founder Valerie van Heest said her group will try to get the Hennepin shipwreck added to the National Register of Historic Places. Only 10 of the many known wrecks in Michigan waters now have that distinction, she said during a news conference at City Hall.

Even though it has a wooden hull, the Hennepin is in "pristine condition," said group member Craig Rich. The cold, fresh water of the Great Lakes helps preserve shipwrecks much longer than wrecks found in warm and salty ocean water.

The all-volunteer group uses research materials to select the most likely locations for wrecks, then employs sonar equipment to scan the lake bottoms. Divers confirm the finds.

When wrecks are located, members promote the locations to divers who might be interested in checking them out. They say the state's west coast is becoming increasingly popular with divers because of the growing number of wrecks just off the coast.

"West Michigan is beginning to become a burgeoning sport diving and technical (deep-water) diving area," van Heest said.

To date, the organization, which was founded in 2001, has covered about 230 square miles of Lake Michigan looking for evidence of wrecks. Other discoveries include the luxury passenger steamer H.C. Akeley, the passenger steamer SS Michigan and the car ferry Ann Arbor No. 5.


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THE VILLAGES — Villager Bob Petrucelli is at home 15 feet under the ocean’s surface. So at home, he says, he’s surprised he hasn’t sprouted gills during a lifetime of diving for buried artifacts.

“I’ve been diving since the ’60s,” Petrucelli said. “I love working underwater.”

Lately, Petrucelli has been helping an archaeologist and his team in an excavation off the coast of the Dominican Republic, trying to find artifacts from a British ship that was sunk between 1652 and 1659.

The team determined the artifacts originated in the 17th century “based on silver coins down there,” Petrucelli said.

The wreck is in shallow water and is referred to as the Monte Cristi Shipwreck Project. The project has been featured in the September 2002 issue of “Scuba Diving,” when the now-clean-shaven Petrucelli had a beard and mustache. He’s known Jerome Lynn Hall, the lead archaeologist on the project, since 1991.

“He’s quite a character,” Petrucelli said.

Petrucelli’s most recent diving expedition started July 8 and was finished at the end of that month.

“I have gone for two to three months,” he said. “I’ve done a ton of wrecks off the East Coast.”

Petrucelli, who is certified as a rescue diver, a deep-sea diver and an aquarium diver, has been looking for artifacts since 1991, when the ship off Hispaniola was first excavated.

“We don’t know the name of (the ship), but we’re getting close,” Petrucelli said. “You get an answer, and then you get 20 more questions.”

Judging by the amount of charred wood on the English oak of the ship, Petrucelli and the team are thinking it may been burned before it sank, but they still are not sure why it went down. They also have found lead musket balls that were lodged in the ship’s wood.

For Petrucelli, helping in the excavation is a hobby. It is much different than the other field he explored before retirement.

“I’m a retired air traffic controller,” he said.

Petrucelli worked with the Federal Aviation Administration for 30 years and was a Navy air traffic controller. He had diver friends in the Underwater Demolition Team, the precursor to the Navy SEALs. They got him involved in diving.

Petrucelli helps clean and log artifacts while using a dredge system to free artifacts from the wreck off the island. On his many trips to the wreck, Petrucelli has found thousands of smoking pipes, silver coins, glassware and lead musket balls. In the ’90s, the team helped bring up a cannon.

In 2006, the team found ceramics, Venetian glass, salt holders and more musket balls. Petrucelli said he was amazed that a piece of Venetian glass, with intricate carvings, had survived centuries without being destroyed.

Petrucelli has found thousands of clay smoking pipes in the wreck, including bulbous and elbow pipes. Some of the pipes were engraved with the initials “EB” for Edward Bird, a Dutch pipemaker.

The artifacts belong to the people of the Dominican Republic. The team keeps the pictures they take and the research. Petrucelli and the team have clearance from the country to do that.

Petrucelli uses dental picks to clean concreted coral from the artifacts. Hall and others have taught Petrucelli how to clean the items properly to prevent damage. He said you are taught to pick away from the item. Petrucelli said the trick is to keep things wet at all times while you clean them.

Petrucelli said Hall’s staff usually consists of eight people, not including the cooks from the Dominican Republic. They live “Survivor”-style on a deserted island near the wreck. He said the team lives in tents, hangs laundry to dry and uses pit toilets, holes with boxes over them, for restroom needs. It is placed away from the camp so as not to attract flies or spread illness. The team must also endure bug bites, and Petrucelli had the marks to prove it. A generator helps shed light on the situation at night, and they are protected constantly.

“We have a guard on the island all the time,” Petrucelli said.

Members of the team take turns going to the mainland via boat for groceries, ice and water. A town is located a mile or two from the main marina. A motorcycle taxi, or motoconcho, helps make the trip around town easier.

“You’re buying for everybody,” he said.

Petrucelli said they eat a lot of goat and “it tastes OK.” They also eat chicken, but only by killing live chickens. The cooks are very good, he said. Still, Petrucelli finds himself working more and snacking less. “I lose weight when I go,” Petrucelli said. “I have lost up to 20 pounds over a summer.”

The team sets up dives, and team members have different jobs that involve cleaning and maintaining the camp and equipment when they are not diving. Petrucelli said the team members are not all archaeologists by trade.

“Most of them love to dive and are interested in archaeology,” Petrucelli said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie. You become family with all these people.”

A single dive may take two to three hours. Petrucelli said the divers go about 15 to 20 feet down and exhale when returning to the surface. They take a large tender from the island. In July, the tender was named the Rummy Chum VI, and it was anchored over the wreck. Usually the dives include four divers and a crew that helps the divers prepare their suits and equipment and check the air supply.

The divers do not use tanks. Instead, they use a compressor with hoses attached.

“The compressor feeds you the air,” Petrucelli explained.

He said the divers have 50 feet of hose over their shoulder, a mask, weight belt and regulator. There are no fins, and divers drop straight down.

Grids are marked off all over the wreck area in order to make logging artifacts easier. Each square that is sectioned off is given coordinates, like a piece of graph paper.

“You work out of a 2-meter grid, broken into four quadrants,” Petrucelli said. “You gotta say exactly where you found that stuff.”

The team uses a dredging device that pumps water by using vacuum suction. This way, sediment is cleaned from around artifacts to free them. Two divers called “tailgunners” check the cage at the other end of the underwater dredge pump and collect anything that gets sucked in.

When the team comes to the surface, the first responsibility is the artifacts. They are handled first.

“All the artifacts have to be kept in salt water to preserve them,” he said.

After they finish a dig, they cover the wreck to protect it. They take burlap bags filled with sand and spread it over the site they were excavating. Then they reverse the dredge machine and blow spoil, or excavation waste material, over it to protect the wreck until the next dig.

Petrucelli feels fulfilled by this hobby, and it has kept him occupied.

“Marine archaeology is a fascinating thing,” he said.



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MOSCOW - Russian divers have spotted the wreckage of a legendary U.S. submarine that was lost in the Pacific in 1943, a Russian news agency reported Thursday.

The ITAR-Tass news agency said that a diving team from the Far Eastern State Technological University in Vladivostok found the USS Wahoo in the La Perouse Strait and took pictures of it during a recent expedition. It didn't give further details.

Under the command of Dudley "Mush" Morton, the Wahoo became one of the most famous U.S. submarines of World War II. With 19 Japanese ships sunk, Morton was ranked as one of the war's top three sub skippers.

The Wahoo was sunk by the Japanese navy as it returned from its seventh patrol on Oct. 11, 1943. All 79 crewmen died.

August 13, 2006



DULUTH, Minn. - St. Louis County, Minn., Undersheriff Dave Phillips' efforts to photograph the inside of the sunken heavy cruiser USS Houston for its survivors association have been halted by the U.S. Navy before he could get his remote-controlled underwater camera into the ship.

Barbara Voulgaris of the Underwater Archaeology branch of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., said her office and the U.S. Justice Department were forwarded a Duluth News Tribune story reporting Phillips' trip to Indonesia to film the inside of the ship, which was sunk by the Japanese during World War II.

Voulgaris wanted to know how to reach Phillips.

"We've got some concerns because it's not legal for him (or his camera) to go inside the wreck or to take things off of it," Voulgaris said. She said Phillips also wouldn't be allowed to send his camera into the ship because it had the potential to disturb the site.

"As soon as they disturb it without the permission of the Navy - that's where the problem is," she said.

Phillips used vacation time and planned to photograph the inside of the ship. He joined a team headed by Jerry Ranger, a lieutenant with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office in Florida and the son of a USS Houston survivor and prisoner of war.

Ranger was awakened by the News Tribune at 2 a.m. Saturday, aboard a 40-foot boat he and Phillips were sleeping on near the sunken ship. He didn't want to wake Phillips.Ranger had earlier received a phone call from Voulgaris.

"The USS Houston group is very behind this dive and they are upset and very concerned," Ranger said. "They want us to continue on with their wishes of entering the ship, not to loot but to photograph the deterioration of a World War II vessel that their organization survived."

However, because of Voulgaris' call, Ranger said the planned exploration of the ship's interior is in limbo.

Voulgaris referred to Title XIV of the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Bush in 2004.

The Naval Historical Center said the purpose of Title XIV, generally referred to as the Sunken Military Craft act, is to protect sunken military vessels and aircraft and the remains of their crews from unauthorized disturbance.

The USS Houston went down on March 1, 1942, in the Sunda Straits off Java. Of 1,008 crew members, only 368 survived.

Phillips was contacted by the USS Houston Survivors Association because of his experience using a remotely operated vehicle camera during his duties with the sheriff's office and its volunteer rescue squad.

Val Poss, executive director of the USS Houston Survivors Association and the daughter of another USS Houston survivor, said that the planned exploration of the ship's interior has been halted because of the Navy's intervention.

"Originally, I was incredulous," Poss said by telephone from her home in Pflugerville, Texas. "I can understand their position of not wanting strangers to go in. However, these men have a personal interest. They are doing it for the survivors and for the history of the ship."

Poss said that several times over the years her association has tried to find someone in the Department of the Navy that "could assist us with stopping the looting of the ship." She said private divers have taken guns, brass fittings and other items for themselves, some of which have wound up being sold in Jakarta.

"The U.S. embassy in Jakarta advised us more than a half-dozen years ago that the ship was in international waters and that there was nothing that could be done," Poss said.

Now all her group wants is to be able to photograph the inside of the ship before it falls apart.

"Why after 64 years are we doing this? We are doing this for the memory to continue," Poss said, her voice cracking. "Excuse me, I get emotional. These young boys died for our freedoms. Our fathers spent 3 years in hell (POW camps) to come home. We owe it to them to keep the history of this sacred ship alive and to share those pictures, not only with the survivors, but if our government would allow it, the world."

Poss was working the phones Friday. She had calls into Washington, D.C., Duluth and to the boat Phillips and Ranger are on.

She couldn't reach Voulgaris, but said someone else in the Naval Historical Center office told her it would take 90 days to get the proper permit from the Navy to explore the ship.

"I explained to her that we had people at the site and it was costing them $1,000 a day, and they didn't have 90 days to wait, and asked if we could expedite this," Poss said. "I was advised that it still takes 90 days."

Voulgaris told the News Tribune that she didn't want to "look like the big, bad government coming down with the hammer." But because of the existing law, the men exploring the USS Houston faced the possibility of being arrested if they disturbed anything in the ship or tried to enter the U.S. with any artifacts from the ship, she said.

"We just found out about it (the exploration) yesterday," Voulgaris said. "Unfortunately, we can't just give them carte blanche permission to do whatever they want on the wreck. We told Jerry Ranger you can dive on the wreck, you can take pictures of it (from outside), but please don't disturb it without permission from the U.S. government."


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Um grupo de seis arqueólogos vai estudar até 2008 o fundo da baía de Angra do Heroísmo, ilha Terceira, para salvaguardar e valorizar o património subaquático do local, anunciou hoje fonte do projecto. José Damião Rodrigues, professor da Universidade dos Açores responsável pelos estudos históricos, adiantou à agência Lusa que a primeira etapa do projecto, da responsabilidade do Centro de História de Além-Mar da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, decorrerá de 14 a 27 de Agosto na Terceira.

"Este projecto científico será complementar aos trabalhos subaquáticos já realizados e visa comparar os achados arqueológicos depositados no fundo da baía com peças de outras zonas referentes ao mesmo período", afirmou o docente universitário. A baía de Angra do Heroísmo foi ponto de paragem de muitas das embarcações que cruzaram o Atlântico ao longo de vários séculos e concentra, por isso, um "rico património arqueológico", explicou o investigador, que coordena também o mestrado em História Insular e Atlântica dos séculos XV - XX da academia açoriana.

"Há ainda muita coisa por explorar dentro e fora da baía de Angra do Heroísmo, daí ser tão importante conhecer a riqueza arqueológica existente para poder preservá-la devidamente", afirmou José Damião Rodrigues, que coordena o projecto com José António Bettencourt (responsável pelos trabalhos de arqueologia). O estudo científico, orçado em 40 mil euros, divide- se entre o estudo arqueológico e histórico dos achados, permitindo esclarecer quais as dinâmicas de navegação atlântica utilizadas ao longo dos séculos.

"Interessa preencher zonas que ainda estão na penumbra ao nível histórico sobre cronologia, técnicas de construção naval utilizadas e origem das embarcações que escalaram o porto de Angra do Heroísmo", salientou o professor universitário, que prevê publicar em livro as conclusões finais do estudo. Durante duas semanas, a equipa de arqueólogos vai visitar os cinco pontos com interesse subaquático já identificados na baía de Angra o Heroísmo, realizando trabalhos de fotografia, desenho e interpretação dos vestígios.

As campanhas terão lugar todos os anos, até 2008, sempre no mês de Agosto, devido às condições climáticas, justificou José Damião Rodrigues.

IN ANCIENT times, when Scotland was virtually covered in dense forest, there was only one way to get around. Traveling by boat helped early Scots to find food and trade goods with their neighbours.

Now, with the excavation of a 3,000-year-old log boat, archaeologists are hoping to learn more about how prehistoric Scots used the vast network of rivers and lochs.

The Bronze Age dug-out was found in mudflats at Carpow, on the south side of the River Tay estuary, in autumn 2001. A group of three amateur archaeologists – Scott McGuckin, Martin Brooks and Robert Fotheringham – had spotted the worn but still recognisable prow of boat sticking out from the mud and peat.

Radio carbon tests conducted later dated the 30-foot-long log boat, which had been carved out of a single piece of oak, to around 1000BC. This means the Carpow boat is the second-oldest dated log boat ever found in Scotland, and it is also one of the best preserved.

While the remains of 30 log boats survive today – the oldest was a stern portion of a log boat, carbon dated to 1800BC found in Dumfriesshire in 1973 – most are in extremely poor condition. The Carpow boat is not only still in one piece but it also has an intact transom board at the stern.

David Strachan, archaeologist at the Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust (PKHT), says the log boat was a hugely significant find. "It is fantastic. Generally log boats found in Scotland tend to date from 500BC to 1000AD. This boat dates from 1000BC so that puts it in the later Bronze Age, so it's quite an early example.

"Since it was discovered, we did an initial excavation, primarily to find out how long the boat was, the date, and to find out how well-preserved the buried portion of the boat was. That showed us that the buried end is very well-preserved, including having a very intact stern board – a transom board. That is very rare."

The boat was found on an eroding peat shelf, and is only visible twice a day at low tide. Archaeologists believe it was washed downstream from either the River Tay or the River Earn, another tributary of the Tay estuary.

At first, it was decided to leave the boat where it was found, but tests showed it was being damaged by the tides and the weather. Now archaeologists from the PKHT, in partnership with Perth Museum, Historic Scotland and the National Museums of Scotland (NMS), are preparing to lift it onto dry land to be conserved.

Excavation work began in late July and – weather and tides permitting – the boat will be lifted out of the mud, using a special floating cradle. Plans to begin this critical next step are tentatively set for mid-August.

"We will take the boat out in three sections as there is a danger it may snap if it is lifted in once piece," says Strachan. "Hopefully it will tell us a lot about how Bronze Age boats were constructed."

The boat will undergo conservation work by Dr Theo Skinner of NMS – a process expected to take three years – before being put on display to the public, first at Perth Museum and then in Edinburgh.

An Historic Scotland spokesman said: "This is a tremendously exciting piece of archaeology. It will help us make new advances in understanding our prehistoric ancestors – how they lived, worked and even traded in a land which was mountainous and had no roads but had a tremendous network of rivers and lochs."

Log boats are recorded from as long ago as 7000BC in Denmark, and 150 having been discovered in Scotland. Seven log boats were discovered in the Tay area in the 19th century, but only one, dating from around 500AD, still survives and is now on display in Dundee Museum.

It is believed people would have used the boat to go fishing, hunting for wild fowl, and even to ferry people across the Tay estuary.

Barrie Andrian, managing director of the Crannog Centre, in Kenmore, Perthshire, and herself an underwater archaeologist, said: "We are very interested in this log boat. It's one of the oldest boats found in Scotland and the fact that it is so well-preserved is significant from a research point of view.

"It's a great find for Scotland."


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